9/8/12

Resin Shaving Brush Handles

After a few failures, I finally succeeded in making a flexible mold for my shaving brush handles. The mold turned out nicely, showing all the fine details. So yesterday, I went and purchased casting resin, and cast my very first shaving brush handle. I followed the instructions closely, making sure that I used the recommended ratio of resin and catalyst. unfortunately, when I unmolded it this morning, after 18 hours of curing, the surface of the cast was so sticky, that it pulled resin strings. I don't understand what happened, and I am quite discouraged by the results and not just a little disappointed, especially since I can see the details cast very nicely. I guess I could try and clean out the now sticky, coated with uncured resin, mold and cast another piece, this time with more than the recommended amount of catalyst. It would have been such a nice piece! On the more positive side, I tried to achieve the look of ivory and succeeded and all the details are beautiful, so all I need to figure out is how to cast it without it being sticky.
In the photo you can see how sticky it is. With a little imagination, one can see the similarity to ivory. I had planned on applying a patina with a dark brown glaze to highlight the flowers and give it a more authentic ivory look. Well, hopefully the second time around will work.

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